'Truth spoken without moderation reverses itself'
This blog is a source for intellectual exploration. It includes a list of alternative resources and a source of free books. The placement of an article does not imply that I agree with it, merely that I found it thought-provoking. There are also poems and book reviews. Texts written by me are labelled. Readers are free to re-post anything they like.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Pratap Bhanu Mehta - In the moment of his political triumph, Modi has chosen to defeat India

The elevation of Yogi
Adityanath as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh is an odious and ominous
development. It is an odious choice because the BJP has picked someone who is
widely regarded as the single most divisive, abusive, polarising figure in UP
politics. He is a politician who has, for most of his political career, been
the mascot of militant Hindu sectarianism, reactionary ideas, routinised
conflict and thuggery in political discourse, and an eco-system where the
vilest legitimations of violence are not far away. It is an ominous development
because it sends as clear a signal as it is possible to send at this time; the
already accomplished political fact of the marginalisation of minorities in UP
and elsewhere will now be translated into a programme of their cultural, social
and symbolic subordination.

It signals that the
BJP will now be dominated by extremes, its politics shaped largely by
resentment rather than hope, collective narcissism rather than an
acknowledgement of plurality, hate rather than reconciliation, and violence
rather than decency. Hubris has set in. The party believes it can get away with
anything. It now intends to. The election results
gave Prime Minister Narendra
Modi an unprecedented mandate. It is true that most of us who did not
expect the mandate are hardly in a position to explain what the results
represented. All we know is that for a variety of reasons, people reposed trust
in Modi overwhelmingly over his rivals. He got credit for leading from the
front. He has chosen to interpret his mandate in a way that licenses and
empowers the worst tendencies of his party. This is now not a statement just
about UP: It is a statement about the prime minister’s inclinations and
judgement. In the moment of his political triumph, he has chosen to defeat
India.

BJP supporters are
hiding behind the façade of party democracy to legitimise this choice. Yes, the
formal imprimatur of the legislative party is behind him. But given Modi’s
power, this explanation is hard to digest. If Adityanath was so clearly a
popular choice, what was the hesitation in declaring him the chief ministerial
candidate before the elections? If it was uncertainty about his ability to win
across the state, then the result does not alleviate it. So, the only
conclusion is that it was a duplicity of sorts —”of sorts” because the
ideological currents were apparent in the prime minister’s speeches and the BJP
manifesto…read more..